Sunday, September 25, 2011

American Continental regiment - could be Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey or Pennsylvania. Old Glory figures painted by der Alte Fritz. (click to enlarge)

I have a ton of unpainted Old Glory AWI figures that I would like to sell in one batch, funds to be reinvested in moulds for my Fife & Drum range of figures. I have about 400 foot and 40 mounted figures for a grand total of $175.00.

I also have a diorama of 44 Continental foot and 2 mounted officer for sale. I painted these a long time ago for Old Glory to use as their convention display. I later bought back the display for $200. I'm willing to sell it for $150 plus postage. The figures could be easily popped off of the large base and rebased as either singles or multiple figures on separate stands. I could help the eventual buyer with this, if required.

*********************************************************Finally, I have a painted 40 man British regiment that I will sell for $2.50 per figure, or $100 for the regiment. They are not based so they could be mounted in any configuration that pleases you. These were painted for me by someone else, back when I collected AWI armies.

****************************************************************Here is what the lot of unpainted Old Glory figures includes:

I just did an inventory and I have 209 Continental foot and 20 mounted Continental generals and dragoons (10 each i think).

The British have 201 foot and 21 mounted generals (includes 10 dragoons)

So that is 410 foot and 41 mounted in total. I thinking about $0.40 per foot and $0.80 per mounted figure, which works out to $196.00 for the lot. I'd take $175.00 for the whole shebang + cost of postage.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

It is three in the morning here in Hesse Seewald and I am waiting for a coat of grey primer to dry on some of my new Fife & Drum Continentals so that they will be ready for painting later on this afternoon. A few more minutes and then I can flip the figures over and give them one more spritz on the other side. Then it will be off to bed.

At any rate, since I seem to have a little bit of time to waste here, I was thinking how ironic it was that I am always seeking more time to do hobby related things, and for once I seem to have all the time in the world. Alas, it is not being spent on the moving of troops across the wargame table.

Many years ago, circa 1986 or so, I was just entering this hobby and I had ideas that I would always be setting up games or scenarios on my table and having a go at it solo. As my collection of figures grew, mostly in the Seven Years War period, I should have spent more time solo gaming and less time starting new historical gaming periods. However, the bug of Napoleonics caught my attention, and then ACW came along after that. With each new historical gaming period, I was spending more time at the painting table, building new armies, and less time doing any actual gaming.

Mind you, I was doing plenty of gaming with my group - probably once or twice a month, but the plan for solo games fell by the wayside. Fast forward to 2009 or 2010: I had disposed of my vast Napoleonics collection (around 10,000 28mm figures), the AWI and ACW armies were long gone, and I had even sold off my Dark Ages collection and terrain. My intention was to pare the collection down to primarily one period: the 18th Century, with a focus on the SYW.

Taking a page from John Ray in the UK, my plan was to build up my new SYW armies with a lot of detail and depth to include a lot of vignettes on the battlefield as well as more camplife dioramas. That was going alone fairly well, but then I found myself side tracked by another foray into Napoleonics (the Peninsula War this time) and then the AWI, as I started the new Fife & Drum range of figures. All of these wonderful plans have diverted my attention from the core SYW collection.

The Minden Project of Austrian and Prussian armies is about 75% complete at this time. I feel like one more solid push could get me over the finish line and then it would be off to the races with some free kriegspieling or what have you. I would like to do at least one solo game per month and get really granular with my Austrian and Prussian armies.

Typically though, my plans have been diverted again. This weekend, I find myself getting ready to paint more AWI Continentaals so that I have some sample units to show to the public, and hopefully gin up a few more sales so that I can plow the proceeds back into more AWI figures. Then it will be on to Peninsular Napoleonics as I need to get some more things completed before our first rules play test on November 1st. So that will keep me busy.

So I find myself once again without enough time to work on the Minden Project, much less game with the armies. I still need the following items:

Thursday, September 15, 2011

I received a nice heavy box of castings today that are full of the new Fife & Drum infantry command for the Continentals (officer, standard bearer, NCO and drummer) and lots of inventory for the Guards and the Continental rank and file figures. I will post pictures within the next day or two and probably get some samples painted over the weekend.

If you look through the archives on this blog you can at least see the 'greens' for the new command figures (click link below):

We now have all the figures that one needs to start collecting regiments of Continentals. We also have lots of militia, British light infantry and British Guards Brigade figures as well.

In some unrelated news, I have discovered that my close up vision is not what it used to be and that a new eyeglass prescription is likely in my future and probably bifocals as well. I have been finding it harder and harder to paint things like eyes of late and noticed that reading was becoming a little difficult. So this evening I went to the local pharmacy and bought a pair of 1x reading glasses (for reading) and another pair of 1.5x glasses for my painting work. I tried out the new specs for a batch of Croats that I am currently painting (you know who you are) and low and behold, but I was now able to paint a decent pair of eyes using the new reading glasses.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

I was experimenting with my Austrian limber teams the other day and kind of stumbled onto something cool, but entirely inadvertent. I realized that if I limbered the cannon and pushed the gun crew stand behind the limber, as shown above, and then attached the extra stand of helpers at the rear, that it gave a fairly good portrayal of the gun section as it might appear on the move.

I examined some of the other gun crew stands that I had made and discovered that this only works if I keep the front of the crew stand clear of , well, crew. The front of the stand needs room for the cannon wheels when it is limbered.

Crew unlimbers the cannon.

The gun crew stand has been removed and the helpers are detaching the 12-pounder from the limber.

The section is deployed and ready to fire.

The gun section is now ready to fire as the crew man their positions, supported by the helpers. The limber moves to the back of the battery. I typically also have a stand for an ammunition wagon, which provides for a very long tail.

Other News

I finished a set of 16 Minden Croats painted as Kreutzer Croats, in white, for a client and am now starting work on some Croats in blue coats and red trousers, for the same client. They are looking very nice. I'll post pictures in several days when the set is completed.

Monday, September 5, 2011

I have been very busy the past couple of weeks, although the number of recent posts would seem to indicate otherwise. It's just that I have not had the time to take pictures and post blog entries. Recent work includes painting some Austrian dragoons with Minden figures, some of the new Fife & Drum figures that just arrived from the caster, and some Austrians (shown above) that are destined for one of the imagination duchies.

My customer wanted to add a colorful regiment to his sea of white coated Austrians, and so the Von Loudon Frei Korps or Green Loudon regiment seemed like an obvious choice. I used RSM figures and GMB Austrian flags for the unit. I also added a 6-pounder battalion gun to use with the regiment. I am not sure that the Green Loudons would have had battalion guns, but what the heck, why not?

Artillery piece with limber and crew, limbered position.

Artillery deployed in battery. Note that the gun model is not glued to the stand so that it can be shown with the limber, when it is limbered, and with the crew, when it unlimbers.

I figured that if the Green Loudon regiment had battalion guns, then they would use Austrian cannon, painted in ochre yellow Austrian colors, but would be manned by men from the regiment. Thus the gun crew are wearing the green with red facings livery of the regiment.

The client also asked me to make some more command stands for some of his existing units (Minden figures - the two right hand stands) plus some extra stands for a Hungarian and an Austrian regiment that I had previously painted for him. The other figures on the left are RSM figures.

Fife and Drum Continentals & British Guards
I have posted pictures of some of the new AWI figures that recently arrived and are available for sale. Head on over to my Fife & Drum blog for a look.